Maidstone Council Debated Its Water-Supply Housebuilding Motion Last Night - Result Not Yet Published

Maidstone's full Council met as planned at the Town Hall on Wednesday 30 September and took up the 'Halt the Houses' motion as item 15 on the agenda, after reports from the Democracy and General Purposes Committee and the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee. The council hasn't yet published the minutes that would confirm how the vote went - its Modern.Gov site shows the meeting as held, but no outcome - and a motion like this doesn't actually do anything until the minutes are approved and, if it passed, the Leader sends the letter it calls for. We'll update this article with the result, and what happens next, once the minutes are published.

Maidstone Borough Council debated a motion on Wednesday 30 September asking the Government to look again at how many homes the borough is required to build, and to pause housebuilding until water companies can show there is enough water to supply them. If it passes, the concrete result is a letter from the Council Leader to the Government. The motion is a request, and it does not change how planning applications in the borough are decided in the meantime.

There are two requests. First, that the Leader writes to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government asking the Government to review whether Maidstone's housing requirement is still "appropriate and deliverable" given the capacity of local infrastructure, "particularly water supply", and urging a moratorium on housebuilding until water companies can give adequate assurances. Second, that the Government considers making water companies statutory consultees on planning applications for 30 or more homes, so that water capacity is formally weighed when big schemes are decided.

The motion, titled "Halt the Houses", points out that Maidstone's adopted Local Plan Review provides for at least 19,669 new homes between 2021 and 2038, and that the Government raised housing targets across Kent in December 2024. It cites the water shortages that have hit parts of the south of the borough, naming Loose, Headcorn, Coxheath and Marden, and says residents in west Maidstone, in Barming, Allington and Palace Wood, are worried about the cumulative effect of building on both sides of the boundary with Tonbridge and Malling around Hermitage Lane, where water comes from the same source.

The motion leans on South East Water's position in Tonbridge and Malling, where the borough council tried to pause its Local Plan over water supply and the Government ordered it to carry on. A note on the numbers: the motion says the company has stated it cannot supply enough water for about one-third of the homes proposed in that borough. Our own reporting of South East Water's written answer to Tonbridge and Malling, as read out in Parliament by Tom Tugendhat, put it differently: enough water guaranteed for 6,318 of the 19,620 homes the Government's target requires. The two measure different things, and the motion doesn't say which document it draws on.

The notice of motion was given by Cllr Stanley Forecast, a Conservative member for Palace Wood ward, and seconded by Cllr Lottie Parfitt, a Conservative member for Coxheath and Farleigh ward. The council has 49 members across six groups. The Conservatives are the largest with 13, followed by the Green and Independent Alliance on 12 (its leader, Cllr Stuart Jeffery, is Leader of the Council), the Liberal Democrats on 11, Labour on 6, the Independent and Fant and Oakwood group on 4 and Reform UK on 3. The Conservatives can't pass it alone, so it would need support from other groups, and we haven't seen how any of them intend to vote.

Full Council meets at 6.30pm at the Town Hall in Maidstone High Street. Residents can ask a question by emailing committee@maidstone.gov.uk or calling 01622 602899 by 5pm on Monday 28 September, giving the full text in writing. To make a statement on an agenda item, contact the same address or number by 4pm that day. Source: Maidstone Borough Council, Council agenda, 30 September 2026